India Right To Information

The decision of the Committee on Privileges and Ethics of Kerala Assembly to summon the State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner to answer breach of privilege of the House raises fresh questions relating to the privileges. The issue arose over the State Information Commission's order issued to the State Information Officer of the Assembly V. Jayalekshmi Amma directing her to furnish a copy of the video recording and printed record of the speech of Kerala Congress (Jacob) leader T. M. Jacob in the Assembly in 2005 to an applicant under the Right to Information Act. The Information Officer supplied the applicant -- Kochi based advocate D. B. Binu, with a printed copy of the proceedings but held that the video recording was privileged material. The charge against the Commission now is that it was encroaching upon the privileges of the House by trying to enforce the order. The Legislature Secretariat despatched the Committee's summons to Palat Mohandas, the Chief Information Commissioner of Kerala, and P. N. Vijayakumar, who was State Information Commissioner when the Commission decided the case, on Monday.

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